Féile Finals Fundraiser
We are running a Fundraiser in support of our two Under 15 teams who recently made history for our great club Nenagh Éire Óg club by ‘doing the double’ ✨️✨️ and qualifying for the Féile na nGael hurling All Ireland final & the Peil na nÓg All Ireland final.
We couldn’t be more proud of the boys achievements ✨️✨️ & we are asking for support from businesses, families and friends as part of their Féile double All Ireland finals journey.
If you are an individual and would like to donate please click this link.
For corporate donations please click this link.
Your support is very much appreciated
Get well soon Paraic
Everyone in the club sends their very best wishes to our former Camogie PRO and underage coach, Paraic Harty, who has been unwell recently.
We look forward to seeing Paraic back in MacDonagh Park before long and perhaps even togging out again for a few games of social hurling! Wishing him a full and speedy recovery.
Adult News
Senior
The countdown is on to the North Championship where our Senior Hurlers will face Toomevara in the quarter final on Sunday the 21st of June at 4pm in Dolla.
Junior B
Best of luck to our Junior B hurlers who face Kiladangan in the league on Wednesday. Throw in is at 7pm in Nenagh.
Camogie News
The under-10s at their blitz in Athenry
Under-10s
Our under-10 girls had a fantastic day out in Athenry on Saturday, 30 May. They showcased great camogie skills, teamwork and determination throughout the day. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience and received a very warm welcome from Athenry Camogie Club. It was a memorable day for all involved.
Under-12s
Our under-12 navy team after their game against Portroe on Wednesday 27th May
Our Blue and Navy teams were both in action last week, taking on Borris-Ileigh and Portroe respectively in two highly competitive matches. Both teams performed very well, displaying excellent skill, teamwork and commitment.
The under-12 players are looking forward to a fun blitz this Wednesday alongside the under-10 boys. The Navy team returns to league action on Sunday, 7 June, when they travel to Puckane to take on Kiladangan.
The under-12 blue team after their game against Borris-Ileigh on Wednesday 27th May
Under-14s
Our under-14s host Kilmacud Crokes on Monday morning, 1 June, in what promises to be a valuable challenge fixture.
Training continues as the girls await confirmation of their next championship fixture in the knockout stages.
Juvenile News
Under-8 Boys
Our under-8s lined out against Lorrha and Templederry last Friday evening in Nenagh, delivering excellent performances across all games. Training continues on Saturday mornings.
To get involved, contact John at +353 87 136 5053 and join the fun.
Under-10 Boys
Our under-10 boys played Murroe, Ballinahinch and Burgess in a series of very competitive and enjoyable matches. Training continues on Wednesday evenings.
To join, contact Mike at +353 87 632 4202.
Under-12 Boys
The boys continue to prepare for their hurling campaign, which begins in the coming weeks.
If your child would like to try hurling or Gaelic football, contact Greg at +353 85 170 8133.
Under-14C Boys
Our under-14C team recorded a hard-fought win over Holycross in Nenagh last Thursday evening. Best of luck to the boys in their semi-final.
Under-15 Boys – Féile Double All-Ireland Journey
Our under-15 group has launched its Féile Finals Fundraiser and we are hugely grateful to everyone who has supported it so far. Both of our under-15 teams made history by qualifying for both the Féile na nGael All-Ireland Hurling Final and the Peil na nÓg All-Ireland Football Final — an incredible achievement.
We are seeking support from families, friends and businesses as the boys continue their Féile journey.
If you are an individual and would like to donate please click this link.
For corporate donations please click this link.
Your support is truly appreciated.
Under-16 Boys
The under-16s continue their preparations for the upcoming league and championship. Best wishes to the boys in their Junior Cycle examinations.
New or returning players are always welcome. Contact Niall at +353 87 408 6439.
Under-17 Boys
The boys continue to prepare for the upcoming hurling championship.
Best of luck to the boys sitting Junior Cycle or Leaving Certificate examinations over the coming weeks.
Slí Éire Óg
Feile Throw Back
Back row left to right: Fergal Horgan (Knockavilla Kickhams -skills winner), Paul Cusack, Pat O’Connor selector, Mark Finn, Neilly Corbett selector, Ken Jones, John Treacy, Richie Flannery, Trevor Moloney, Cian Ryan, Cathal Midleton, Willie Gerrard, Chris Midleton Manager, Noelie Tomlinson (RIP), John Paul Hogan.
Front row left to right: Eamonn Dillon, Ronan Bailey, Damien Clancy, Mikey Hackett, Mickey McNamara, John Paul Ryan, Cormac Galvin, Paul Hogan, Trevor Morrissey, Enda Quinn (RIP), Kevin O’Meara.
As this year’s Féile team prepares for the National Finals in Laois, we look back on the last time the club captured Féile glory in 1993. After defeating Ballingarry in the county final, the boys travelled to Galway to represent Tipperary with great pride. Hosted by Castlegar, they faced strong opposition in Patrickswell, Athenry and their hosts during a memorable campaign.
The very first Division 1 Féile na nGael final was played in Semple Stadium and was refereed by Michael O’Brien. Here he is photographed with his son Brian and grandson Ruaidhri.
Lotto
Lotto
There was no winner of last week’s lotto jackpot. The three €50 lucky dip winners are:
John Kennedy, online.
Mary McDonnell, online.
Pat Kelly, c/o Carey Glass
There was no winner of this weeks lotto jackpot. The three €50 lucky dip winners are:
Roger Coffey, online.
Gary Howard, online.
Dick O’Connell, Ardan Rua.
Next weeks lotto jackpot is €6,400. If you would like to play our club lotto online you can do so here.
The Late Brian Hudner
There was great sadness across Nenagh, Silvermines, Cuala GAA and Monkstown earlier this week as news broke that Brian Hudner had lost his brave battle with cancer. Brian was a gentleman, a gifted wordsmith, a passionate hurling man and a devoted family man who made a positive impact on all who had the privilege of knowing him.
Back in 2013, as our senior hurlers prepared for their county final clash with Loughmore-Castleiney, Brian wrote an article for our website and newsletter in which he recalled his memories of the 1995 victory and expressed his hope that the hurlers of 2013 would repeat that success. Below, you can read his brilliant, witty and heartfelt account.
I was living 6,000 miles from home when Nenagh Éire Óg won their solitary senior hurling title a generation ago.
It was morning my time when I heard the news of victory down a long-distance phone line. The connection was poor; our voices echoed more than the Ailwee Cave and we spent most of the time talking across each other like Brolly and Spillane. Nonetheless, I got the jist of it in the end.
It had been a ‘bóthar fada’ to get over ‘Bóthar Leathan’, but in 1995 Conor O’Donovan raised Dan Breen and dedicated it to all those who ever wore the blue.
The mammy sent out the Guardian a week later and I inhaled it with the ink-stained fingers of the exile.
What I didn’t know then was that it was also Monday morning his time when my father walked home from John Ryan’s in Summerhill, a half-gallon of porter his only source of sustenance. To this day, he claims it is the fastest time he has ever taken to cover the couple of miles home.
If I’m being honest I’ve always been dubious about his time-tracking on that night. After all, he left the pub as full as a Biro – no, as full as Mikey Heffernan’s medal drawer – and fairly skated home, songs still ringing in his ears. Whether or which, it was a night of nights in Nenagh town, and I missed it.
I need hardly add that Nenagh have threatened Dan Breen twice since then and run into a certain neighbouring parish on both occasions. This year, happy to report, the townies have no, ahem, Toomstone around their necks to pull them towards perdition.
Now, as in 1995, we are set up for a tilt at a Mid side, though not one of the Mid sides more favoured at the outset of the season. Indeed, the resurgence of the Mid division – and a countervailing fall in the North – has been much heralded in the last few years. We need no reminders that since Éire Óg won, no other North side apart from Toomevara has won the county championship (and their incredible haul of eight over eleven years is a spur to action on Sunday like no other).
One measure of the gap to the last win lies of course in the fact that the current team features sons of those who played in the last victory or featured in the final earlier in the ‘90s.
Noel Coffey lined out at corner-back in 1995 and his son Andrew wore 23 against Kildangan in the semi-final replay. Billy of the Heffernan clan is a backman like his dad (though John had a sojourn on the edge of the other square in 1995 of course). No surprise to see Howards, Quinns and Flannerys following fathers and brothers either. And there are other connections in the latticework: the entire side is spliced with familiar surnames, some in their third generation of service.
One such name of note is that of Kevin Tucker who will man his station in the centre of the Tom Semple’s field on Sunday. It is hard to believe it is 20 years since he won the North Tipperary Player of the Year award or that is so long since he gave a certain famous bainisteoir the runaround in the Munster Final of 1997. He is, so to speak, the son of his earlier self! He was by common accord one of the best men on the park against Kildangan the last day and will be key to unlocking Loughmore, a club chasing their third county title.
Loughmore-Castleiney have of necessity also made a virtue of family tradition. And while they might have a smaller pick, what a pick it is! The cousins McGrath match our Heffernans, and will take the same watching. Each of them is a game-changer in his own way, but the men running the Nayna ‘line have given every indication so far that they have a shield for every arrow and a couple of spares in their own quiver.
While this Nenagh team is short of county medals – Kevin Tucker aside – it is dotted with lads who have won All-Ireland titles with Tipperary at senior and underage and who have county titles all through the juvenile and under-21 grades. Added to a scattering of lads who won a recent All-Ireland colleges title with Nenagh CBS as well, it gives Nenagh a great chance on Sunday.
As something of a postscript to this piece there are many of us who wore the blue (without any distinction in my case) that will be there on Sunday. It is gratifying to see Nenagh in a final again after a seven-year gap.
I grew up a Brendan Cummins puck-out away from ‘the hurling field’ and made up the numbers as a young fella. Many’s the evening that Dinny McSweeny or Seán Foley came to round up a few of us to head off to Dolla or Cloughjordan, though it has to be said that some of us were, as the fella says, no addition. But no matter. We still cast a shadow on a hurling pitch sometime.
Anyhow, if Nenagh win, myself and the oul’ fella will doubtless be looking at our watch faces sometime on Monday morning as we point the shoe leather for home.
This time, there will be no long distance.
And no records either.
On behalf of the club we extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Rosie, children Finn, Siún and Sadhbh, his mother Joan, brothers and sisters and their partners, Róisín and Ivor, Owen and Mary, Darra and Ellen, Aidan and Suzy, nieces, nephews, extended family, the neighbours and a wide circle of friends. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
CLASH OF THE TITANS: THREE WARRIORS LIGHT UP THE ASTRO UNDER GOLDEN SKIES
Under golden skies and in conditions the gods themselves would have blessed from the heights of Mount Olympus, the Astro became an arena of myth and mayhem last evening as three hurling warriors — Martin Gleeson, John Phelan and Conor O’Donovan — clashed in an epic 30-minute session of 1 v 1 v 1 Social ‘Ground’ Hurling.
Like Achilles preparing for battle beneath the walls of Troy, the trio opened proceedings with a fierce five-minute warm-up, firing sliotars against the wall with the rhythm of thunderbolts hurled by Zeus himself. Ash clashed, sliotars screamed and the Astro echoed to the sound of three men summoning the spirits of the ancient game.
Then came a dazzling exhibition of skill worthy of Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare. Alternate striking off both left and right sides while moving forwards, sideways and backpedalling tested balance, timing and bravery in equal measure. The movement was relentless, the touch divine and the intensity rising with every strike.
But the true labour of Hercules arrived in the next drill as the warriors went end to end, with one player stationed in the middle doubling on the ball in each direction. Like a lone Spartan holding the pass at Thermopylae, the middle man battled wave after wave of sliotar fire with scarcely a second to breathe.
And then the challenge deepened further. The middle player was now commanded to tame the sliotar with one touch before unleashing it back into combat with the second. It was hurling alchemy at full tilt — control, composure and courage forged together beneath the evening sun.
Each warrior endured two brutal 90-second spells in the centre, but it was John Phelan who ascended to legendary status, setting the benchmark for future generations with a heroic tally of 34 touches. The effort would have earned nods of approval from Apollo himself.
The session reached its dramatic finale with three minutes of blistering high-tempo alternate wall striking, the sliotar flying faster than Hermes carrying messages between the gods.
As the sun dipped and the warriors finally laid down their ash, one truth remained clear — the legends of the Astro continue to grow.
Roll on next Wednesday at 8.15pm, when the next chapter of this Olympian saga will be written.
